The Albums of Fubuki
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Rei needed inspiration to help her find what sort of photos she’d be taking for the graduation album, and there was one camera-happy boy who could help her. Ryo/Fubuki and one-sided Ryo/Rei.


Notes – For the gx_100. Set during season four, just before Asuka started helping the graduation album committee with their photos. Also, while Fubuki and Rei have a friendship in Tag Force they are not known to interact much in the anime, so this was written on the presumption that they wouldn't be as close of friends in the anime as they are in Tag Force.

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There was precious little time before the current third year students graduated and moved on into the world of duelling. In light of this everyone was rushing around, busy doing one thing or another.

This frantic preparing was not limited to the third year students. As a member of the graduation album committee it was Rei's role to take photos of all the third year students before they graduated.

She was a first year, so it would seem odd to anyone who didn't know her that she would be involved in preparing photographs for students two years her senior. But the current third year class was special to Rei. They had done a lot during the time they had been at the academia, and had even saved her life once. So with the group all busy preparing for their graduation Rei and another friend of the third year's, Kenzan, happily took up the task of trying to catch them all on camera.

She credited herself that she wasn't a particularly bad photographer, though it hadn't been something she'd tried much before. But she found that she still needed some inspiration as to how to go about this task.

Yearbooks were often such dull things. Showing smiling mug shots of each member of the class against a fake sky background so that years later they could be pulled off a shelf by some former student that was now married with kids who would go, "Oh, that was the person who dumped me at the school dance. I remember now!" It was so bland.

Rei didn't want the yearbook she was making to be like that at all. She wanted to have photos of students how they really were, capturing them in surprise while working or playing so that when the album was looked back on years later the person could remember iwhy/i their friends had been so great back then.

But photographing people like that wouldn't be easy. Since she had nothing to go on she'd requested to look at some of the previous graduation albums produced by students, and Samejima had been happy to let her look through them. The results weren't at all helpful though, as each year seemed to have the same old formula that had been used countless times before.

As she was considering calling quits and just arranging a planned photo shoot for the whole year a knock came at the door.

"Come in," she called, wondering if they'd managed to dig out more old albums to show her.

The door was flung open, and in walked the flamboyant student Fubuki Tenjoin, his arms filled with books and a wide grin on his face.

Rei knew Fubuki as a student who had been held back for a few reasons but was graduating this year. And that was about all she knew of him. They were both part of Juudai's group of friends but outside of that they had never particularly spoken much to each other.

Nevertheless, he had always seemed like a nice enough person and Rei was polite to him.

"Thank you for bringing those yearbooks," she said, "If you put them over there I'll get to them in a moment."

"Yearbooks?" Fubuki clutched the pile close to his chest as if he was protecting a small child, "These are not yearbooks, they are inspiration!"

"Um… what?"

It was true that Rei wouldn't be winning 'Comeback of the Year' with a response like that, but Fubuki had a habit of leaving those he spoke to confused and unsure what was coming next.

"My information has confirmed to me that you are part of the graduation album committee and will be taking original photos of students not like the boring ones we usually get," he proclaimed loudly. Apparently Samejima liked to talk about requests made by students it seemed, "And I'm sure you've found no luck using those other books for reference."

She nodded, hoping that he was going somewhere with this.

"You are most fortunate that I happen to be experienced in the art of taking photos of people while they're not expecting it, and have brought some samples of my work for you to use as reference," he said, now choosing to let go of what he was carrying, dumping the books down on the table.

"That's wonderful!" Rei shouted, getting up to check the new arrivals. Now that she thought about it, she had seen Fubuki around with a camera on more than one occasion.

She got straight to work flicking through the pile. Most were of students she was unfamiliar with, but that really didn't matter. What mattered was that these were exactly the sort of photos she wanted to use: the people were acting naturally, doing whatever they loved, some were in shock of the camera and some didn't notice it was there, but none of the pictures were unflattering. They showed the students how they were.

As she worked through, Fubuki rested his head on his hands, still smiling, and said, "I would have loved to have done a graduation album. Though with things being as they are I don't have the time… But! I'm glad that someone is doing one as it should be done."

She was too engrossed in the book to give more than a nod's response, but her hand froze in mid-turning of the page as she saw one face on a photo out of the corner of her eye.

Ryo Marufuji.

It was in the past now, but it was still common knowledge that Rei had a huge crush upon him when she was younger, and had pursued him to the academia before finally giving up on him following some advice from both him and Asuka.

She was over him now, and was sure her love lied with Juudai, but seeing pictures of him as he was back then still made her heart jump. You don't forget your first crush.

The pause was long enough for Fubuki to look over at the album and see where her gaze was caught.

"Oh, Ryo? I have lots more photos of him," he said, pulling another album out from further down the pile.

As he opened it this one seemed more personal than the random shots he had taken of students. The people in it were of a narrower selection, so this book was probably of Fubuki's own friends from a few years ago. Ryo turned up in it a lot.

Looking through these photos it was easy to see how different this Ryo was from the Ryo she'd known. Rei had met Ryo as an opponent, who had defeated her respectfully. He was a tall, stoic figure who didn't divulge much about himself. Part of this mysterious charm had been why Rei found herself attracted to him in the first place.

This Ryo wasn't like that though. He wasn't the silent figure, ready to duel, that she had seen. This was Ryo at casual moments. He still looked formal and often puzzled at Fubuki's antics, but he was a lot more approachable-looking. On some of them he was even smiling. And on one she swore that expression could have been a laugh.

A small pang of jealousy rose up inside her. She shouldn't feel that way, because it wasn't Ryo that she loved now and even if it was she knew they weren't truly compatible, but seeing Fubuki so close to him made her wish she could have got to known him like that. That it could have been her he was smiling at, her jokes he was laughing at… She'd never see Ryo like that.

"You two were close," she commented, to try and get some grasp back on reality.

"We were. Best friends back in the day, Ryo and I," Fubuki told her, looking across at the photos, "Such an odd duo, people always said. But we were happy together and that was all that mattered to us."

"That's so lucky…" she echoed, not entirely meaning for him to hear it.

"I thought you liked Juudai now," he said, but smiled knowingly, "A maiden's love is hard to lose. Trust me, it took a long time for me to get Ryo to open up to me as much as he is on those pictures."

"I'd still like to know how you did it," she said, moving further through the pages, into the book.

Looking thoughtful for a moment, Fubuki replied, "It takes a lot to know someone as they truly are. You have to look past what they think of themselves or what you think of them. Somehow the two of us did that. I don't think we were even knew we were half the time."

She moved closer to the end of the album, noting how as it progressed the two grew closer. They were even hugging on the last few pages. And wait…was that ki-

The book was suddenly grabbed from her and closed hurriedly.

"I think that's all you need to see of that," Fubuki said, his face turning indignantly red. Perhaps he'd forgotten some of what was in that album himself, "I can only hope that it was helpful to you…"

Smiling, Rei answered, "Yes, more than helpful."

And she wasn't lying either. What Fubuki had shown her was that it wasn't just showing the people how they were that was important, but showing how they related to other people. The friendships formed at the school should not be forgotten and she knew now how to capture them on film.

Much the same as how Fubuki had captured his friendship with Ryo in these books.


End file.
